Teaching Students with ADHD

Course Description

Uncover effective strategies to assist children with ADHD in managing their behavior and achieving academic success. You will gain insights directly from the children themselves, learning how Kristi navigates her impulses, how Wanda copes with boredom, how Adam enhances his cognitive engagement, how Harry meets his need for movement without distracting his teacher, and how Darren excels in his homework. Additionally, you will hear from parents and educators about the significant benefits of implementing simple adaptations in the environment, structure, rules, and expectations. This course will also dispel common myths surrounding ADHD while clarifying its impact on motivation, activity levels, attention, and memory. By the end, you will be equipped with the essential skills and knowledge to empower students with ADHD to realize their full potential.

Learning Objectives

What You Will Learn

• Learn important strategies for ensuring ADHD students reach their full academic potential
• Gain the professional insight necessary to accommodate ADHD students while still meeting the needs of the whole classroom
• Develop and implement specific strategies for ADHD students based on the latest clinical research
• Challenge assumptions and learn what science really tells us about ADHD

Course Syllabus

Details

Understanding Students with ADHD

Teaching students with ADHD presents challenges and opportunities. This lesson introduces ADHD and how it impacts children and their ability to learn in a classroom environment. You will learn the reasons for many behaviors associated with ADHD, some myths about ADHD, and how ADHD impacts skills.

The Diagnostic Process

This lesson explores the diagnostic process. A teacher takes many steps to document a student's behavior, consult with school personnel, and communicate with a student's parents or guardians. You will learn these steps, as well as how a pediatrician and a clinical psychologist evaluate a student.

Are They Putting in the Effort?

Students with ADHD are often accused of being lazy, or simply not trying. This lesson focuses on the issue of effort, and how students' perception of effort may be different from what others observe. You will learn how effort problems impact school performance, and how brain chemistry relates to effort.

ADHD and Brain Activation

Students with ADHD often have trouble activating their brain. This lesson introduces three activation problems: overarousal, underarousal, and impulsivity. You will learn about the relationships between activation, motivation, and brain chemistry, as well as strategies to help students with these problems.

ADHD and Activity Level

Sometimes, students with high activity levels can't seem to keep still in the classroom, and this can be extremely taxing on a teacher. This lesson explores why some students need to move and how movement is helpful to them. You will also learn how to help these students manage their movements.

Attention and ADHD

Students with ADHD struggle with attention. Often, their mind wanders and they can't control this the same way an average student does. This lesson explores attention, how it needs to be regulated, and strategies that can help your students successfully control internal and external attention.

The Emotional Impact of ADHD

This lesson focuses on ADHD's impact on emotions. You will learn why this occurs neurologically, three common emotional patterns in students with ADHD, and specific interventions. You will also meet three students who are dealing with some significant emotional challenges as a result of their ADHD.

Memory

Want to better understand the memory process? This lesson explores why memory is so important, how memory works, and what happens when memory breaks down. You will also learn about the three types of memory: working memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Problem-Solving and Academic Performance

Now that you understand how ADHD affects activation, attention, impulsivity, and memory, you can focus in on how ADHD impacts school performance. In this lesson, you will learn more about this issue, and explore a strength-based problem-solving model that you can use across the curriculum.

Classroom Beliefs and Rules

How do you incorporate learning strategies for students with ADHD while still addressing the other students' needs in the classroom? This is what this lesson focuses on. You will learn how to create an inclusive classroom that accommodates every student's needs and treats all students fairly.

Preplanning and Facilitating an ADHD-Friendly Classroom

This lesson focuses on specific materials teachers can develop prior to the opening of school, to prepare for the effective inclusion of students with ADHD. Then there are the teaching tools to use during lessons, to help students with ADHD stay engaged and on task.

Student Self-Reliance

In your final lesson, you will learn how students can take all of the tools you teach them and use them to their advantage. You will also meet a high school junior, who will share how he improves his self-knowledge, how he compensates for his ADHD, and the strategies he uses to succeed in school.

Measure of Performance

Upon completion you will be ready to:

• Gain specific and functional strategies for reaching students with ADHD in your own classroom
• Learn the facts about ADHD so that you may have empathy for the unique challenges your students face
• Learn how to implement what you learn in this course in your school's curriculum
• Become an expert in ADHD and fulfill a leadership role in your school's ability to address a growing concern

Course Requirements

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to take this course.

Hardware Requirements:

This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

• PC: Windows 8 or later.
• Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
• Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
• Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, please fill out the self-disclosure form. The Office of Disability Services coordinates services for students with disabilities. Documentation of a disability needs to be on file in that office before any accommodations can be provided.